


Good-bye, Lab Partner

by TheSofterGentlerMe



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Death, Emotional Hurt, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Post-Season/Series 05 Finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:01:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26218318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSofterGentlerMe/pseuds/TheSofterGentlerMe
Summary: Science says nothing lasts forever and Entrapta knows that but to know it and to experience it are two vastly different things.
Relationships: Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra), entrapdak - Relationship
Comments: 28
Kudos: 56





	Good-bye, Lab Partner

**Author's Note:**

> Shall we?

Entrapta felt like a mess inside, roiling emotions screaming for attention, while on the outside she remained calm. Out beyond the edge of known space she sat in the airlock with Hordak’s body, she refused to think of it as Hordak, and finished tucking in the shroud she’d made from the sheets off their bed, the little cheerful robots printed on them incongruous with their repurposed task, and then sat back on her hair, flipped down her visor, and brought up her recorder. 

“Day 2, Mourning. Entropy is part of everything and that includes life so I shouldn’t be surprised by this, especially since he’d been doing so poorly lately, but I find that I am surprised. I’ve cried but not much. I think I’m supposed to cry more. I think it’s ok though, he’d have understood,” Entrapta said. 

She paused, flipped up her visor, and ran a hand over Hordak’s uncovered face. Emily sat behind her silently and she hadn’t seen Imp since Hordak had quietly died the day before with her, Imp, and Emily sitting around him. She knew that Imp was alright because she’d left some food out for them and it had gone missing. Before she put Hordak out to drift eternally through deep space she’d broadcast on the speakers in the ship what she was going to do so Imp could come watch if they wanted. She sighed, flipped the visor back down, and started recording again.

“I think he knew for a while that this was going to happen. The logic is sound. Making deductions from the decision to backup our entire system before we left the comm net to refusing to bring along the other clones, I think Hordak knew this was the last time he’d go out. We tried so hard to keep him going but his conditions, his damage from the crash when he came through to Etheria the first time, and all that time in Etheria’s atmosphere just caused too much damage I think. He’d probably tell me to find out as much as I could but the thought of doing that to him just… no, science can find out another way,” Entrapta said as she felt her throat get tight at the thought of cutting her partner up. 

She sat motionless for a long time, the only noise Emily ticking occasionally and the sigh of the air vents and machinery, and she remembered living in Dryl before the war. It had been a bit like this, just her and machinery. She’d looked back on that time with fondness many times over the years but it was easy to look back with fondness on that time when Hordak had been with her. She supposed she could go back to Dryl now for good. They’d amassed enough data to last her the rest of her life in research and discoveries and tinkering but she felt empty at the thought. She wouldn’t even have been alone, the group of clones that rotated in and out of the Crypto Castle now would be there to help out. She started recording again. 

“I wish I could just stay out here for good. I could collect data, do my research, and then program Algo to go back once I was gone,” Entrapta said. “It wouldn’t be fair to Imp though. I really should take them back to one of the clone ships, maybe even Etheria. I’ll ask them when I see them. Maybe after that I will stay out here. I could set up a resupply with one of the clone ships and just live out here. I’ve spent more time here in this ship than I have on Etheria at this point, although that time was with… Hordak...”

She turned the recorder off and flipped her visor back up and looked at Hordak’s body again. 

“I know you’re not there but I miss you so much. We had so much left to do! We had The List! You had just updated it! Wait, you did just update it. Why did you just update it if you knew this was going to happen? Logically, that makes no sense and you were always very logical,” Entrapta said and then addressed the ship's AI. “Algo! Could you please bring up The List for me?”

“Certainly, Entrapta,” the voice, a mix of Entrapta’s and Hordak’s voice, said. A holographic screen appeared before her and she could see alterations made all down the list dating to just a few days before. She ran a strand of hair down the line seeing that the while there were many alterations, the one consistent thing in each was all in the needed personnel. Then at the end was a locked video file. It had a simple title:  _ For Entrapta. _

She opened it up and it asked for a password. She sat and thought for a moment and idly laid a strand of hair on Emily while she thought. This was a game they’d done before, with little notes to each other with varying degrees of difficulty on the encryption, but she had a feeling this one wouldn’t be difficult. With that thought she realized what the code would be.

“Lab partner,” she said out loud. 

The video opened and she felt her throat tighten again as she saw Hordak looking out from the screen. She almost closed and deleted it right there. She flipped down her visor though and started the video. 

Hordak looked out at her from the bed he’d died in and said, “You’ve gone to run another experiment to see if you can save me but I know that it’s not to be. I will be gone soon. When I was in the service of Horde Prime, death was believed to be something in the glory of Prime and that I would live on in the memory of the hive mind, eternally, in whatever deeds I did for Prime. I know that is not the truth. I also do not think anything waits for me beyond life. I believe I shall simply be gone. I am prepared for this.”

Hordak looked at the camera in silence for a moment and said, “You have shown me love through the years but more importantly you have been my friend, my first friend, my closest friend, and for a long time my only friend. I hope I have in some way been the same for you and while I am prepared for my death, I am not prepared for that to end. I altered everything on The List so that it may be run by one person and tried to add as much as I could to the notes and equipment. I’ll merge the lists together soon. I hope that you continue our work we set out to do together. The thought that I will be able to be your partner just a little bit longer in some way brings me some comfort.”

Hordak lay back for a moment and the sounds of his labored breathing came through the speakers. He finally said, “I’ll tell you this later but I will also say it here. Build no memorial for me, hold no elaborate ceremony, simply let me go in deep space to drift among the stars. Tell my brothers that I cared for them, try to explain this to Imp, and Entrapta, my beloved Entrapta, do not mourn me long. I would not have your mind ensnared in grief, I would not have your beautiful personality marred by pain, and I would not have you lose your desire for knowledge simply because I have finally gone to what science says awaits everything.”

He closed his eyes and was silent for a long time and Entrapta thought he had fallen asleep on camera. She was about to turn it off when he opened his eyes again and said, “You have been the most brilliant part of my life, Entrapta and I’m sorry to have to say goodbye and leave you alone now. I love you, Entrapta.”

The video stopped then and Entrapta put her head down as the tears came again. This time they flowed freely and she dropped the recorder on the ground as she reached down and pulled Hordak’s body tight to her. She wept and the ship echoed with her grief. A short time later, she felt Imp pulling at her arm and she sat Hordak’s body down to pull them up into her arms. Imp held up the small computer strapped to their right arm and then typed for a moment. 

_ Really gone? _ the device said. 

Entrapta nodded as she wiped at her tears and said, “Yes, he’s really gone. It’s just you and I, Algo, and Emily now.” 

Imp looked down at Hordak’s body and gave a little shriek of grief and then buried their head into Entrapta’s shoulder. Entrapta moved out of the airlock, feeling guilty for leaving Hordak’s body unattended as Emily followed her, and sat down in the hallway and let Imp shriek and cry. After they calmed down she said, “He left me a bunch of things on our list to do. I’m going to be spending most of my time in space from now on. You can stay with me if you want or I can take you to one of the clone ships or even take you back to Etheria.” 

Imp shook their head and then typed for a moment and said,  _ Stay with you. _

Entrapta hugged them and said, “I’d really like that, you can help me out if you want. We’ll do research together. I know he’d have liked that.” 

They both sat there silently and finally Entrapta said, “He asked to be set adrift. I’m going to go do that now. Do you want to watch?” 

Imp nodded. Entrapta helped them put on their spacesuit, put her’s on, and then went into the airlock. She turned to Emily and said, “Emily, I’m going to leave you inside as safety, ok? We’ll be back soon.” 

Emily chirped at her and rolled out of the airlock. Entrapta set up safety lines, checking and re-checking them because she knew she was distracted. She checked Imp’s suit and then her own before finally sighing and kneeling down. She touched the side of Hordak’s face one more time before wrapping the shroud around it and snugging it tight. 

She closed the inner lock, cycled it, and the outer lock opened into a beautiful field of stars. Imp scuttled over to Hordak’s body and looked up at Entrapta. 

“Do you want to help?” she said. 

Imp nodded and she said, “Ok, let me pick him up and then get on my shoulder and I’ll go out.” 

She picked up the body and felt Imp settle on her shoulder. She stepped to the edge of the lock and they stared out at the field of stars, sharp and bright against the black void. They stared silently for a moment and Entrapta carefully set the body out where it floated in space in front of her.

“You’re matching our velocity right now and so if I do nothing, you’ll just hang by us,” Entrapta said, fighting the urge to drag the body back in. “So I guess I have to give you one last push. I love you, Hordak. You were the best partner I could have ever wanted. Imp, do you want to say anything?” 

Imp shook their head and Entrapta said, “Ok, help me give him a push.” 

She leaned forward and Imp leaned forward from her shoulder and they both gave the body a push and it started drifting away. She held Imp in her arms and they both watched it drift away behind them and then out of sight. Entrapta stepped back into the lock, closed the outer door, and cycled it again. Emily was waiting on the other side as she removed her suit and helped Imp out of their suit. Imp cried and she did as well as she hugged Imp and Emily close. 

As the tears subsided she took out her recorder again and said, “Good-bye, lab partner. I'm going to do our work now.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. I'd say I hope you enjoyed it but it's kind of full of grief so I guess I should say that it was satisfying to you instead. 
> 
> I was working on another fic when this idea came to me. I went to outline it real quick so I wouldn't forget and then found myself just writing it all in just a few hours. I've never written Entrapdak before really, except for the brief amount that's in another story that's not about them in The Lyrical Anthology, and I feel a bit bad that my first one was for the death of Hordak. I don't have much to say except that this one really tore at me. I think that's why I wrote it so fast.


End file.
